The following projects are long term and we are always seeking additional information.

Jan 22, 2012

Paintings and prints based on photographs or vice versa

It can be difficult to locate examples of paintings that have provably been based on photographs, or vice versa, and so this exhibition brings together some notable examples and it will be improved over time. If you have examples let us all know.

At certain times people have sought to raise the "artistic" value of photography by showing how similar it was, or is, to painting. Within pictorialism "hand-worked" prints were the natural way to go with this and although it was a dead end as it denied what made photography unique it was a significant period in widening the acceptance of photography as an art form. This exhibition brings together a series of photographs that demonstrate how photographers have been influenced stylistically by painting and printmaking.

One of the earliest applications of photography was the reproduction of artworks and Joseph Nicéphore Niépce did this in the 1820s with his work on the portrait of Cardinal d'Amboise. Henry Fox Talbot in The Pencil of Nature , published in 1844, included a "Fac-simile of an Old Printed Page" (Part 2, pl.9), a " Copy of a Lithographic Print" (Part 2, pl.11) and "Hagar in the Desert" (Part 6, pl.23) to stress the importance that photography would have in historical and art research. As photography developed some photographers and companies specialized in selling copies of masterpieces of art history and this exhibition includes texts on these and the associated legal issues over copyright protection of photographs.

On the Internet I have come across illustrations of the pioneeering underwater photography of Louis Boutan (1859-1934) at the Arago Marine Laboratory at Banyuls-sur-Mer between 1892-1900. The websites provide examples but no source information or proper credits.

I'd be grateful for any specialists in the history of Underwater Photography who can assist. Perhaps we could collaborate on an online exhibition. alan@luminous-lint.com

Thanks to you all for sending through photographs and illustrations of photographers from your private collections and for all the leads on where we might be able to obtain an example. We currently have over 1500 portraits of photographers online.

This is a long term ongoing project so keep sending them through. Many thanks and have a FESTIVE SEASON - Sharing makes the world a better place - alan@luminous-lint.com

We are continually seeking to locate portraits of photographers so we can share them with everybody as an aid to research. If you have any portraits of photographers in your collection please email through a scan - alan@luminous-lint.com. All photographs are fully credited and linked back.

The following online exhibitions form the basis for a section on fashion photography. One group of exhibitions shows the different styles of clothing worn during the 19th century while another shows fashion photographs taken during different decades of the 20th century - 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. We will fill in gaps as we go forward.

Multiple explosures - further examples requested for the online exhibition

We are progressing on the "Multiple Exposures" online exhibition and I thought I'd share some examples that have arrived in the last few days as each is a fascinating part of the history of photography and may not be well known.

The first image is a whole plate Daguerreotype Seated Gentleman, with Brattle Street Church seen through window (Edward Everett ?) by Southworth & Hawes which has been provided by Matt Isenburg (President of the Daguerreian Society). Seemingly the only way this Daguerreotype could have been created on the plate was by double exposure - the first part being focused on the seated gentleman and then removing the curtain and refocusing on the church through the window. This important photograph is reproduced in American Daguerreotypes from the Matthew R. Isenburg Collection Exhibition and Catalogue prepared by Richard S. Field and Robin Jaffee Frank. Introduction by Matthew R. Isenburg. Essay by Alan Trachtenberg (Yale University Art Gallery - New Haven, Connecticut, 10 November 1989 - 3 January 1990) plate 121, p. 103, 115. It is also included in Robert A. Sobieszek & Odette M Appel The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes (Dover, 1980), p. 94.

On rare occasions contemporary Daguerreotypists have a taken double exposures. In the example Valentine (2006) by Mike Robinson (Century Darkroom - www.centurydarkroom.com), a specialist in taking Daguerreotypes and their conservation, he captures a rose within a jar on the positive metal plate.

Mark Osterman (Process Historian - George Eastman House International Museum of Photography) must have experimented with almost all, if not all, of the early photographic processes and this salt print from a collodion negative was taken for the vaudeville act Amnesia Curiosa created and performed by Geoffrey Sobelle and Trey Lyford and directed by Andrew Dawson.

The final image is a carte de visite (CDV), kindly provided by Andrea Cesari, that shows a portrait of a sitting gent with a ghostly figure. For an excellent volume on this type of photography buy The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult by Clement Cheroux, Pierre Apraxine, Andreas Fischer, Denis Canguilhem and Sophie Schmit (Yale University Press, 2004). This is a remarkable and fascinating book.

FINALLY: An online exhibition on "Multiple Exposures" is in preparation and I'd welcome intriguing examples from all periods and regions using any photographic process. Thanks to Matt Isenburg, Mike Robinson, Mark Osterman, Andrea Cesari and all those who have provided examples so far. Best, Alan.

Jul 20, 2008

Solarization in photography - examples?

At this point you will be thinking - "Will Alan ever stop?" and the answer is probably not. The 'Sabattier effect' (named after the French scientist Armand Sabattier who discovered it in 1862) results in an image that is part negative and part positive and is created by exposing the print to light part way through the darkroom development process. Solarization, the more commonly used term for this effect, was "re-discovered" by Man Ray and Lee Miller and was the kind of technique that appealed immediately to Dadaists and Surrealists.

I'm planning an online exhibition to be added to this website and would welcome examples and suggestions. If you happen to be an authority on Solarization so much the better and I'd welcome your advice. alan@luminous-lint.com

Jul 20, 2008

Multiple exposures in photography - examples?

I'm in the midst of planning an exhibition of multiple exposures through the history of photography and I'm seeking examples and suggestions from all periods and regions. If you have CDVs and Cabinet cards in your collection please send them through. This exhibition is not limited to the most famous photographers - I'm also interested in snapshots, real photo postcards and vernacular images. alan@luminous-lint.com